The present invention relates generally to a workflow management system and a document circulation method in a workflow system, and more particularly to a hierarchical workflow management system suitable for changing a circulation route during document circulation, and a workflow document circulation method using same.
D. Hollingsworth, "Workflow Management Coalition The Workflow Reference Model," Nov. 29, 1994, pp. 3-51, discloses a process definition workflow management.
A workflow system, positioned as an information processing system for improving the efficiency of a document circulation job in an office, is a system which produces electronic documents and information and circulates them on a network to improve the job efficiency in a job in which a plurality of humans progress a common business process while communicating such documents and information with each other.
The workflow system allows documents and information to be automatically circulated to a role at the next node through a workflow client by previously storing procedures and rules for jobs or business processes on a workflow server. The circulation order and rules for a job are each called a "process."
In the prior art, when processes, i.e., flows of program control are stored, all definition information for each different process is separately stored in a workflow server connected to a workflow system. In this event, if a process to be newly stored in the server is similar to an existing process, a definition operation for the new process may be facilitated by copying the definition information of the existing process and adding appropriate modifications thereto. Even in this case, however, all definition information is separately preserved on the workflow server for each process. When a stored process is to be modified, a new process is separately stored on the workflow server, and the old process is deleted as required. For storage and modification of these process definitions, a supervisor is assigned to each process and is authorized for such definitions and modifications of the associated process.
When a document is circulated through a workflow, the document is circulated in order from the first viewer on definition. If the circulation is suspended in the midway, in general, all works in course of circulation, including an associated process, are entirely suspended. In some workflow systems, each work may be suspended instead.
The prior art method as mentioned above implies the following problems:
(a) Unlimited Use of Stored Process:
For a request to copy and use an existing process for modifying a stored process or for defining a new process, some of existing processes may have been modified or are defective, so that even if he use of an existing process is to be limited, there is no countermeasures taken therefor. Consequently, the system cannot be adapted to jobs and/or organizations which may be frequently changed.
(b) Modifications to Stored Process:
When a job and/or an organization is modified and associated processes are to be modified correspondingly, all the processes including the modified job and/or organization must be manually handled, thereby requiring complicated and laborious works.
Even if a newly stored process is similar to an existing process, the new process must be stored as a completely different process in a workflow server. Thus, if a number of similar processes exist, the same data, stored the same number of times, will consume a recording area of a computer for nothing. Also, for modifying only a portion of an existing process, the entire process including unmodified portions must be stored again in the workflow server, thereby uselessly consuming a recording area.
(c) Partial Modifications to Process:
Since a supervisor is assigned to each process in the prior art, the supervisor must respond to any request, e.g., even a request to modify an extremely small portion of the process. If minute process modifications in respective organizations are separately requested from respective small divisions in a large scaled process, the management for the requests will be complicated and laborious.
(d) Testing of Stored Process:
When a stored process is tested, a workflow to be tested must be processed in order from the first viewer of the process, even if the test is conducted only for an extremely small portion of the whole process, thus making the test inefficient.
(e) Switching of Process in operation:
As to a workflow in which a modified process has been started (on a previous process) before it is stored in a server, the workflow is processed by the previous process even if the modified process has been stored in the server before the workflow reaches a modified portion of the process. Therefore, newly initiated processes after the modified process has been stored can only be processed by the modified or updated process. At the time the updated process is stored in the server, subsequent workflows must be passed through the new process (in parallel with the older process).
(f) Partial Suspension of Process in Operation:
Assume that circulation of a document to predetermined employees should be reserved for reasons of secrecy or the like, for example, in the case of a document including secret items such as modifications to the company's organization, information on new products, and so on. In this situation, if each process is suspended in each workflow, when a plurality of workflows are flowing through a plurality of processes, these processes must be suspended one by one. In addition, newly initiated workflows must be constantly monitored, thus causing a problem related to the efficiency. Further, when a process is suspended, an associated job will also be suspended even in portions other than the suspended portion, thus causing a delay in processing. If a process is to be suspended immediately before a location to be suspended, a supervisor must monitor the process for appropriately performing the suspension.